Bowling-alley pin-spot.



No. 715,215; Parent-eu nee. 2. |902..

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BOWLING ALLEY PIN SPOT.

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L vENToa Mdr/1% /BY K ATTORNEY.

UNITED STATES PATENT Ormes.

PARIS J. RIDDELL, OF BROOKLYN, NEW YORK, ASSIGNOR TO THE BRUNS- WICK-BALKE-COLLENDER COMPANY, OF NEW YORK, N. Y., A CORPO- RATION OF OHIO.

BOWLING-ALLEY PIN-S POT.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. '715,21 5, dated December 2, 1902- Applicatiou led March 26, 1902. Serial No. 99,995. (No model.)

To LZZ wiz/0m it may concern:

Beit knownthat, PARIS J. RIDDELL, of the city of New Yorlnborough of Brooklyn,county of Kings, and State of New York, have in- 5 vented a new and useful Improvement in Bowling-Alley Pin-Spots and I do hereby declare that the following is a full, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, form- :o ing part of this specification.

As is well known or understoodV by those skilled in the art of building bowlingalleys and familiar with their uses, there are always arranged on the face of the alley-bed at its x5 pin end a series of spots, ten in number and arranged so that the figure or contour formed thereby is that of an equilateral triangle, each spot being circular and of a size corresponding to the circular area ofthe base zo of the tenpin, thesefspots, as they are called, being for the purpose of enabling the pin-boy or pit-boy'to set up the tenpins in the proper relative position and each on exactly the right spot on the surface of the alley-bed. It has a 5 been a common practice almost from time immemorial to have these circular spots painted or produced by the application of some darkcolored pigment or stain to the finished surface of the alley-bed; but as inl the use of the 3o alleys these spots thus made on the beds su rface are apt to soon wear away or become 0bliterated, or partially so, thus rendering it diflicult for the pit-boy to quickly perceive the spot and set the base of the pin to ex- 35 actly match the spot, various more durable means or devices have been suggested and employed to a more or less extent to more durably accomplish'the ends of what are called these pin-spots.

Of course, as is well understood, a spot painted or colored on the surface of the wooden bed is naturally the bestkind of pinspot, barring the fact of its lack of durability, on account of, rst, its obliteration by the 45 frictional wear of setting up and knocking down the pins on the spots, and, second, its obliteration` by the planing 0E or leveling and smoothing or iinishing operation to which bowling-alley beds have frequently to be sub- 5o jected to keep them in perfect playing conbility of any such inserted device having its upper or exposed surface on which the pin is placed getting out of perfect plane with the wooden top of the bed itself, and, second, because of the difficulty of removing such inserted spots'whenever the surface of the bed E may have to be trued up and then replacing them so as to occupy precisely the same perfectly flush condition-With the trued-up bedsurface which they occupied with said. surface when originally combined therewith. Furthermore, in the use of all such removable pin-spots with which I am familiar it has been exceedingly difficult to insert the spots, whether made partially or wholly of metal, with their top surfaces perfectly flush with the surface of the alley-bed and so permanently or durably securethe spots in place that their top surfaces would never'work out of the original and proper positions at their top surfaces.

. I have devised a new kind of piu-spots, made of metal, which cannot only be readily and securely attached in precisely the proper position at the designated point in the bedsurface,but which will always retain its proper position, while at the same time for any necessary purpose it can be very read-ily removed and replaced to serve perfectly the designed purposes of a pin-spot.

To this end and object my invention may be said to consist in a metallic cylindrical piece of exactly the circumference of the base of the pin to be set thereon and formed with adownwardly-projectinghub or boss like projection adapted to be inserted within a properly-made cylindrical recess or depression in the wooden bed, formed also with a smaller central cavity or recess, a suitable approximately incompressible but yielding packing being arranged between the under side of the cylindrical part and the bottom of the larger portion of the cylindrical recess in the bed, means for securing the said metallic device roo at the vicinity of its downwardly-projecting hub-like portion to the wood of the bed, a means for covering and protecting the upper end of this securing device,wl1ich latter means may be screwed into and out of place without the exposure of any screw-heads and in such manner that its top surface, perfectly flush with the top surface of said metallic device and also with the surface of the bed, cannot be aected in a manner to uuscrew it in the slightest degree by the action of the bases of the pins when the latter are being either slid along on top of or knocked off of the pin-spots.

To enable those skilled in the art to which my improvement relates to make and use pinspots embodying my invention, I will now proceed to more fully describe the latter, referring by letter to the accompanying drawings, which form a part of this specification, and in which I have shown my invention carried out in precisely that form in which I have so far very extensively practiced it with perfect satisfaction.

In the drawings, Figure l represents a partial vertical section of an alley-bed, taken in a plane which passes centrally or diametrically through one of my improved pin-spots attached to said bed. Fig. 2 is a top view of the same. Fig. 3 is a bottom view of the metallic body or main portion of theinserted pinspot detached from the alley-bed and from the other parts of the device with which it is shown combined at Fig. l. Fig. 4 is adetail bottom View of one of the parts shown detached. Fig. 5 is a partial top view of the main metallic portion of the pin-spot detached, and in the several views the same part will be found always designated by the same letter of reference.

A represents part of an ordinary wooden alley-bed, and B is the main or body portion of my improved metallic piu-spot, formed, as seen at Fig. 1, with a central hub or boss like portion B2, these integral 4main and boss-like portions of this metallic device fitting snugly within correspondingly-sized circular depressions bored or cut in the wooden bed A, as clearly illustrated at Fig. 1.

The larger of the two circular depressions in the bed is made' somewhat deeper, it will be seen, than the depth or thickness of the main cylindrical portion B of the metallic device, so that when the latter shall have been forced down until its top surface is perfectly flush with the top surface of the bed A it will rest upon and be supported by a packing J, (see Fig. 1,) composed, preferably, of putty, onto which the metallic pin-spot is forcibly pressed or seated, while the smaller cylindrical bore or recess of the wooden bed, within which the part B2 of this metallic device is inserted, is made somewhat deeper, it will be seen, than the hub-like portion B2 when the latter is finally positioned, so that the seating of the metallic device will be solely on the annular packing of putty J. This metallic device B is bored or turned out, as will be seen at Fig. 1 and also at Fig. 5, with a shallow cylindrical cavity G, from whence a counterbore or smaller cylindrical chamber E extends downwardly and through the boss-like portion B2, from the bottom of which larger chamber or counterbore there is made entirely through the end of the boss portion B2 a smaller cylindrical hole e, having its upper end portion chamfered or slightly countersunk to receive the frustrum-shaped end of an ordinary wood-screw f, which, as clearly shown at Fig. 1, after having been inserted and screwed home operates to securely hold downwardly in a rigid and in a durable manner the metallic device B B2, all as clearly shown. After the placement or securement in position thus of the casting B B2, firmly seated on the packing-ring J and with its top surface perfectly iush with the surface of the Wooden bed A, a metallic device, such as clearly shown in the drawings and composed of a disk-like top O, a smaller depending cylindrical portion F, and an intermediately-annular groove or recess I, is inserted and screwed downwardly within the smallercylindrical chamber or bore E of the casting B B2 until the bottom surface H (see Fig. 4) of the disk-like part C of this device shall have come into forcible contact with the surface G (see Fig. 5) of the shallower bore or cylindrical depression of said casting B B2, said smaller cylindrical chamber E of the casting being not only threaded, it will be understood, to receive the male thread on the exterior F of the inserted and screwed-home device, it being understood that this eXteriorly-threaded part F is somewhat shorter, as shown at Fig. l, than the depth of the interiorly-threaded chamber E, into which it is screwed, for the purpose of insuring always a perfect bearing between the said bottom surface H of the iuserted device and the surface G of the main casting of the pin-spot. In order to facilitate or readily permit the insertion and removing of this central lnetallic device with its disklike top portion C, the latter is provided (see especially Fig. 2) with two small cylindrical depressions d d, in which may be inserted the points of a tool of a well-known character adapted p to turn or,screw any devices which are not provided with a nick adapted to receive the end of a screw-driver, and preferably the under surface of the casting B is formed, as seen at Fig. 3, with a series of radially-arranged groove-like depressions simply for the purpose of having the lower surface of the part B molded into, soto speak, the batch or body of putty J, onto which the casting B B2 is placed and forcibly pounded down until the plane of its top surface shall have been made to perfectly coincide with the top surface of the alley-bed.

It will be understood that by the use, as shown and described, of the casting B B2, forcibly and durably seated in exactly the right position or manner on the packing .T and then securely fastened in position by the IOO IIO

use of the wood-screw f, as shown, this pinspot casting B B2 will be very permanently and perfectly combined with the alley-bed, (though removable therefrom and replaceable therein when necessity may require,) and that by the combination with this casting B B2, made as shown and described, of the central covering-disk C,With its depending shank screwed into the said casting in such manner as to be certainly .turned home to a perfect and very iirln bearing where the under surface H contacts with the surface Gr of the cylindrical depression in the upper part of said casting, a concrete metallic pinspot is produced, which, with the exception of the two small cylindrical depressions d d in the top surface of the central disk-like part C, presents a perfect plane over which the pin-bottoms may slide or move with perfect freedom, since these two little depressions d d are too small to have any appreciable effect on the movements along over the pin-spot of the base of a pin, and that While the entire piu-spot device or contrivance is easily removable when necessary no reasonable amount of use in practice of an alleybed and pins supplied with pin-spots of this description can ever lead to the slightest loosening or getting out of proper position of the said pin-spot device or contrivance. At the same time my improved pin-spots may be economically manufactured in quantity, and the parts thereof being perfectly interchangeable can, if occasion required it, be used with great expedition and satisfaction in the building of bowling-alleys.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is-

l. A metallic pin-spot device,ad apted to be applied to the pin-platform of a bo Wling-alley bed, and composed of two parts; one of which has a cylindrical socket, is inserted within a cavity in the alley-bed and is securely, but removably, fastened iu place therein by a wood-screw, located within said socket, so that its upper surface shall be perfectly iush with the alley-bed surface; and the other of which is a concentrically-arranged, hub-like, piece, the hub, or neck portion of which is threaded to engage with a female thread on the interior of said socket and the under surface of the upper, disk-like, portion of which comes to a forcible bearing on an opposing surface within said socket; all substantially as and for the purposes set forth.

2. In a Ymetallic pin-spot, the combination, with a cylindrical casting such as B, B2,

adapted to be inserted within a suitable cavity made in the wooden bed; means for securing said metallic device within the wooden bed, as specified; asuitablepacking located between the base of the metallic device and the cavity in the wooden bed within which it Y PARIS J. RIDDELL.

In presence of- THos. A. DWYER, J. N. MCINTIRE. 

